


Happiest Birthday

by AppleNapoleon



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Post-Series, Ryou has a Nice Day, Slice of Life, birthday fic, just gen friendship fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-15 23:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2246610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleNapoleon/pseuds/AppleNapoleon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryou's used to cold, lonely birthdays. This isn't one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happiest Birthday

Ryou treated himself with breakfast that morning with chocolate spread on his toast and, on his way to school, bought a chocolate doriyaki from the corner store to munch on the way. He was getting better about not forgetting to eat, and was even making headway on eating balanced meals, but well, _today_ he figured that he could have sugar and chocolate and as many snacks as he liked.

                Yugi met Ryou at the end of the street, which was unusual as Yugi lived quite far away and got the bus to school. "Ryou!" Yugi called, bouncing up onto the balls of his feet. "Happy birthday!"

                Ryou swallowed his mouthful of chocolate pancake and grinned. "Thank you," he said. "You really didn't have to come all the way out here, you know."

                "I wanted to be the first to say it," said Yugi. He returned Ryou's grin and, with a little skipping motion, jumped forward to give Ryou a brief, tight hug. "Have you gotten anything so far?"

                Ryou shook his head and watched the way Yugi's face fell. "It's all right," he said hastily, "if my father's sent a card it's probably still being delivered."

                Yugi looked even sadder. "If?"

                Ryou shrugged. "Sometimes he's busy. I don't mind. But," he added somewhat shyly, "I am looking forward to seeing friends on my birthday."

                That had Yugi bright again and they chatted happily as they walked to Domino High together. Ryou briefly wondered how early Yugi must have awoken to arrive on Ryou's street to wait for him. It made Ryou feel warm in his chest, where once the Ring had spread its cold. This, Ryou realised suddenly, was his first birthday in years without the Spirit. He hadn't had a party since before Amane's death and didn't have one planned this year, but still – that Yugi had made that little effort just to see Ryou, to make the day a little more special, made Ryou's smile turn wide and silly. He wanted to give Yugi another hug.

                They arrived at school just as the crowds were beginning to dissipate in the reception area. Yugi walked with Ryou first to Ryou's shoe locker, where they were met by more friendly faces.

                "Ryou!" called Anzu. "Happy birthday!"

                Jonouchi clapped a hand on Ryou's shoulder. "Happy birthday, dude," he said.

                "I'm going to change shoes," said Yugi. He'd waited to make sure Ryou still had company, Ryou realised. Yugi really was ridiculously lovely.

                "So? Do you feel different being eighteen?" asked Jonouchi. He leant on the locker beside Ryou's.

                "Not really," Ryou admitted.

                "You're now of legal age to have sex," said Jonouchi.

                Ryou tilted his head. "Are you offering?"

                Anzu laughed while Jonouchi spluttered and turned red. Ryou hid his smirk by opening his shoe locker. "Oh dear," he said.

                Anzu was suddenly all business. "What?" she said. "What's wrong?"

                From the little caddy Ryou removed a pile of card envelopes. Most of them were pink and some, he realised as he lifted them, strongly scented. "Secret admirers," he said gloomily.

                "Oh," said Anzu, visibly relaxing. "That's not a bad thing! Jonouchi would give his right arm to be as popular as you."

                "Not my _right_ arm," said Jonouchi, "I need that one for- things." He quailed under Anzu's stare.

                "I just feel bad for not returning their affections," said Ryou. "I wish they'd confess to my face so I can be honest with them. As is I have no idea who they are! I don't want to be leading anyone on – it's just unfair."

                "Maybe that's why they stay secret," said Jonouchi. "They know they'll be rejected and want to keep their daydreams."

                Anzu blinked. Ryou took his slippers from his locker and put them on.

                "That was very wise," Anzu said over Ryou's head.

                "Thank you."

                "Are you feeling ill?"

                "Aw, come on," said Jonouchi. "It's Ryou's birthday! How is picking on me improving his day?"

                "Oh, it's not making it worse," Ryou said brightly. He stood and put his shoes away, putting the cards carefully on top of them to collect at the end of the day. He'd polished his shoes last night. There was something lovely about having shiny shoes.

                Yugi joined them and laughed when Jonouchi whined dramatically about the cruelty of Anzu and Ryou. Honda was waiting in the classroom doorway. He pulled Ryou into a one-armed hug before letting him into the room.

                "Happy birthday," Honda said warmly. "Now we just need Jou and Otogi to join Club Eighteen."

                "It is a shame we can't invite them to the orgy," Ryou said.

                "Oh, that reminds me, if you want to come to it tonight bring snacks."

                "Wait," said Jonouchi, "there really are orgies?!"

                Honda rolled his eyes and steered Ryou towards his desk. For a moment Ryou thought that Honda was taking him to the wrong place, or the room had been rearranged, because surely that wasn't _his_ desk piled with presents? It wasn't a huge pile, but it was _there_ , and Ryou was struck by how many years it'd been since he hadn't bought his own presents.

                "You _needn't_ ," he said, turning eyes that felt faintly itchy to his beaming friends.

                "We're your _friends_ ," said Yugi. "Go on, open them before Miss Tsukada gets here!"

                With trembling fingers Ryou pulled at sellotape, peeling it with maximum care so as to keep the wrapping paper neat and untorn. Anzu's wrapping looked neat from far away but closer inspection revealed a huge amount of tape, making her gift almost impenetrable, and she tried to hide any mistakes with big bows. Jonouchi's wrapping was more haphazard. Honda wrapped normally, and those were the only gifts he managed to open before Miss Tsukada entered the room.

                "Ooh, someone's birthday?" she said. "Happy birthday, Bakura Ryou! Everyone, on your feet and wish him happy birthday!"

                Ryou's face burned scarlet as his fellow students dutifully did so. As Tsukada took register he put his gifts into his desk, wrapping paper lain flat under them. Anzu had given him some very cute hair ties with little plastic faces of classic monsters – after a moment Ryou pulled the mummy off the cardboard and put his hair up in a ponytail with it. He saw Anzu give him a thumbs up from the other side of the classroom. From Jonouchi was a garage kit of a zombie rising from the grave, with a note attached reading, 'this was the creepiest one I could find. Enjoy!' Honda's gift was a book of traditional Japanese ghost stories. Ryou's toes wiggled in his slippers. He hadn't opened Yugi's yet, which was so large it barely fit in the desk, and, he realised guiltily, the cards were unopened too. How rude! Ryou reprimanded himself for not opening them first, which was what he'd been taught was polite.

                Concentrating on his lessons was a little difficult. As soon as the bell rang for morning break Ryou opened his desk and tore into his cards (figuratively, of course – he took as much care with the envelopes as he did with the wrapping paper).

                "Ha, yeah, sorry my card's kinda flowery," said Jonouchi, leaning over his desk. "I realised I'd forgotten to get you one last night and all the spares Mom had were really middle-aged lady."

                "How is living with her going?" Ryou asked. It was a rather middle-aged lady card, a photograph of a rose and words in a flowery script, but it still made him happy to see Jonouchi's scrawl.

                "It's pretty good," said Jonouchi. "Don't have to worry about _her_ stealing my money. And living with Shizuka again is _great_."

                "She signed it too!" said Ryou, noticing Shizuka's much neater signature. She'd drawn a little smiley face. It was adorable.

                "Yeah, and paid for half your gift."

                "I'll write her a thank you note to give her." Though Jonouchi's mother had allowed him to move in with her, her new husband, and Shizuka, Shizuka had enrolled in a different high school.

                "I'm glad you liked the bobbles," said Anzu, leaning on Ryou's desk on his other side.

                "They're lovely! As is the kit, Jonouchi, thank you," Ryou said, remembering his manners. "And yours, Honda, thank you! I'll read it as soon as possible." His friends had drifted over to surround his desk. Ryou didn't like crowds but it was fine if it was them.

                Jonouchi poked his shoulder. "You haven't opened Yugi's yet."

                "Oh, you don't have to," said Yugi. "We can go outside if you like."

                "Open it," said Honda. "It's the best one, believe me."

                Putting aside the cards once again Ryou withdrew Yugi's gift. As he pulled carefully at the tape Honda said, "Aw, come on, just rip it!"

                "But it's lovely paper," said Ryou. "I might want to keep it for scrapbooking."

                "You scrapbook?" said Anzu.

                "No," said Ryou, "but I might want to someday."

                He pulled the paper aside and – oh. He looked up at Yugi, eyes wide. "Thank you," he breathed.

                "I thought we could all play it again!" said Yugi.

                "But." Ryou ran his hands over the box. "This is a limited edition, Yugi! I've been looking for it since it was released!"

                Yugi puffed his chest out proudly. "I know," he said. "We sold out within the first week – but Grandpa put one box aside for me cos I remembered you saying you wanted it. Honestly, it was kind of hard to keep it a secret because every time we went into a shop and it wasn't in stock you looked really sad!"

                It was a Monster World expansion, _The Shadow Elves' Forest_ , a rare set in and of itself but this limited edition came with not only the usual game board and pieces but a book of five new campaigns, details for a whole new class, and a gorgeous one-twelfth scale figure of a Dark Dragon, the most popular monster in the game. Ryou got to his feet, silently squeezed past Anzu, and hugged Yugi.

                "Thank you," he said softly.

                "We'll definitely play it with you," said Yugi.

                "Just don't trap our souls this time," said Honda.

                Ryou laughed and released Yugi. "I make no promises."

                He put the box away in his desk with great care. Ryou hadn't actually played Monster World _with_ anyone since- well, since the Spirit. Ryou's friends had been understandably hesitant to do so in the aftermath, and then everyone got distracted by Duel Monsters and the Pharaoh, and honestly Ryou _was_ fine just making the figures and campaigns but, well, Monster World was a game meant to be played with friends. It would be wonderful to do so again.

                "Oh, _there_ you are!" said a voice from the doorway. The group looked over to see Otogi. He and Kaiba were in separate classrooms to everyone else this year. "Happy birthday, Ryou!"

                "Thank you," said Ryou. He felt he should say something else, so added, "Your hair looks good today."

                "My hair always looks good," said Otogi. "Yours is nice tied up. Here." He held out a slim package, topped with a card, which Ryou took gratefully. The card was very classy, black with silver and red fireworks, and Otogi had written inside in a gold pen. The present was a set of thin paintbrushes.

                "Sorry," said Otogi, "I didn't really know what to get you, but Honda said you like figures and, well, I haven't done that in years, but I remember doing the eyes was hard…"

                "It's perfect, thank you!" said Ryou. "My eye brush has become a bit frayed. Oh," he said, looking down at the brushes. "Oh, I think this really has been my best birthday since- since I was given the Ring." Only Yugi knew about Amane. Yugi was very easy to talk to.

                "Are you going to cry?" said Otogi. "Is crying good?"

                "You can cry if you need to," said Anzu to Ryou, and this time she was the one who gave him a hug.

                "Hey, from now on, this is the kind of birthday treatment you can expect," said Jonouchi.

                "This time next year we won't be in school," said Ryou sadly. He leant against Anzu's shoulder. "We'll have separated."

                "We won't have gone _that_ far," said Honda. "I mean, yeah, Anzu's going to America-"

                "Fingers crossed!" piped up Anzu.

                "- and Otogi's going to Meiji, and by that time me and Jou will probably be working full time, but you'll be at Domino University with Yugi."

                "We're not going far at all," chirped Yugi.

                "Come on," said Jonouchi. "Stop wobbling your lower lip and I'll buy you something from the shop."

                "Melon bread," said Ryou, ceasing all lip wobbles.

                "Get me one too," said Honda.

                "Get your own!"

                Ryou decided to walk with Jonouchi to the shop, which meant that everyone else did too, as apparently having a birthday put you in charge of the group. Once Ryou had his melon bread he felt much better. He wished he could hug all his friends at once but unfortunately his arms weren't long enough for that.

                They stood outside for the remainder of morning break. Yugi, Anzu, Honda, and Ryou lorded their age over Jonouchi and Otogi, the latter of whom pointed out that at least _he_ still got to be the dancing queen. Jonouchi didn't get the reference.

                When they walked back to the classroom it was to find the tall, imposing figure of Kaiba Seto leaning against the wall. His piercing eyes fixed on Ryou as they neared.

                "So," said Kaiba. "It's your birthday."

                Ryou faltered. "Y-yes." He nearly asked if that was okay.

                "Hrm," said Kaiba. He drew something from his pocket and handed it to Ryou. Then he left for his own classroom. Otogi shrugged and followed.

                "What did he give you?" asked Jonouchi.

                Ryou held up the piece of paper. "It's a voucher for a half-price ticket to Kaibaland." He smiled. "That's sweet."

                "Only the one?!" cried Jonouchi. "He expects you to go alone?! Man, Kaiba is such a dick."

                Ryou shrugged. "He didn't have to give me anything," he said. "I'll write him a thank you note too."

                There were candies on his desk with more notes from secret admirers. To be honest Ryou minded that less than love notes, because he did _really_ like chocolate, though he did loudly repeat to his friends his feelings about wanting to know admirers' identities in case anyone eavesdropping was responsible for a gift.

                After that, school was school. At lunch Ryou bought something more substantial than his usual, chicken katsu with rice as opposed to more melon bread, which Honda paid for before Ryou could object. They sat outside at lunchtime as it was a fine, warm day, and Ryou was so grateful when Yugi smiled and said, "You know, no one minds if you want to read the Monster World campaign book." So Ryou did that while his friends chatted, utterly engrossed in the new campaigns and fascinated that this expansion introduced official romance stats for Shadow Elves. Of course people romanced them _before_ , probably because official art showed the female Shadow Elves with very few clothes, but as they weren't mortal and were technically half shadow this new information added a whole new dimension to the romantic subplots. Oh, Ryou could work with that, he could _definitely_ do something with that, and probably target Jonouchi…

                "Let's go out," said Honda once the bell had rung to signal the end of the day. Ryou was carefully packing his gifts into his bag.

                "I'll need to stop off home to put these away first," said Ryou. He frowned. "My bag's too small. I suppose I could leave some stuff here…"

                "Ta-dah!" Anzu dangled a cloth tote bag in front of his face. "I thought this would happen. Have another present."

                "Oh, it has bats on it!" Ryou squealed. With Anzu's second gift he managed to pack everything. Jonouchi offered to carry it, and Ryou accepted as there really was an awful lot of chocolate.

                "Is it cool if we follow you home?" said Honda. "Your place is nearer to the town centre anyway."

                "Oh, sure!" said Ryou. He racked his brains. "It should be tidy right now. Is everyone coming?"

                "If I may," said Otogi.

                "The more the merrier!" said Ryou brightly.

                He'd forgotten about his extra birthday cards in his shoe locker and put them in the cloth bag before changing his shoes. Once everyone was ready Ryou and his friends left Domino High to walk to his apartment.

                Outside the school gate was another surprise.

                Arms crossed, standing right in the middle of the road, eyes scanning the crowd, stood Marik Ishtar. Students were giving him a wide berth and giving him curious glances.

                " _Marik!_ " Ryou cried. He dashed over to the other teen and threw his arms around him. Marik lifted him easily and spun him, making Ryou giggle.

                "Happy birthday," Marik said. "It's been good?"

                "It's been _wonderful_ ," said Ryou, eyes roaming over Marik's face. He looked a bit tired and frazzled – he'd come here straight from the airport, Ryou realised, probably hadn't even stopped at the hotel to wash his face as he usually would. "I wasn't expecting to see _you_ today!"

                "Duh," said Marik. "Birthday surprise. Hey, everyone," he added, putting Ryou down and looking over the shorter boy's shoulder at everyone else.

                There was a chorus of hellos, loudest of which was Yugi saying, "It's good to see you again! And you, Rishid."

                Ryou looked up guiltily. "Hello," he said to Marik's tall brother. "I didn't see you there."

                "You had a face full of Marik," Rishid said, "I'm not surprised." He had two suitcases beside him and was  _not_ standing in the middle of the gate.

                Marik rolled his eyes. "Just because I have _friends_ ," he said. "But seriously, Ryou, what did you get? Cos I bet," he grinned, "it's not as good as what I've gotten you."

                Ryou tilted his head. "What's that?"

                "My company." Marik slung his arm around Ryou's shoulders.

                "Because surely _nothing_ could beat that." Ryou laughed and cuddled up to Marik's side.

                Honda coughed. "We can go if you like," he said.

                "No," said Ryou quickly, "we'll all go back to mine, I'll drop off my stuff, and then we'll go out for dinner! Any preferences?"

                "Burgers!" said Jonouchi as they began walking.

                "C'mon, Jou, it's _Ryou's_ birthday," said Anzu. "Let _him_ pick."

                "Oh, I'm fine with anything," said Ryou. "To be honest just spending time with you all is enough."

                Marik moaned and stopped walking to pull Ryou into a hug again. "Stop being so damn cute," he wailed.

                "Never," said Ryou smugly.

                Though Marik still lived in Egypt he was a frequent visitor to Japan and really did try his best to integrate himself into the group. Not to boast but Ryou was pretty sure that he was Marik's favourite, given that he was the one with whom Marik was most physically affectionate. Perhaps they had a connection, having both struggled to keep destructive dark sides in check. Perhaps Ryou was just the most relaxed around Marik having not witnessed the evil Marik was once capable of first hand. Or perhaps, as Marik had once said when jetlagged, Ryou was just too cute to dislike. ("Like a rabbit," Marik had slurred. "I am so tired, wow.")

                Marik and Rishid's cases were put neatly in the hallway of Ryou's home. Once everyone was seated and Ryou had done his duty as a good host by passing around drinks he ducked into his room to change from his uniform into something less formal and restrictive. Marik disappeared into the bathroom and when he returned he lacked makeup but looked far more awake.

                "Hey," said Ryou shyly to the group sprawled in his living room, "would everyone be all right with staying in and playing Monster World? As we're such a big group I was thinking that we could have two parties, and someone could help me be Game Master…"

                Yugi's eyes sparkled. "That sounds _amazing_."

                No souls were stolen but Jonouchi was suitably horrified to learn how Shadow Elves bred right after seducing one. His character died without dignity, trousers, or a head. The game lasted until midnight, which, Ryou explained, was to be expected with such a large group, especially after taking into account the break to argue about takeaway. The heroes won. Marik insisted it wasn't fair after he'd done such a good job of roleplaying the difficult task of being seduced by Jonouchi, but Ryou just smiled brightly and said that sometimes the dice weren't fair no matter how good you were at pretending to be attracted to a barbarian warrior with an intelligence stat smaller than his shoe size. Rishid requested that Marik never ever play a Shadow Elf ever again, please.

                "We should have gotten you a cake!" Anzu cried suddenly after the game, when everyone was too tired to do anything else but unwilling to go home. "Oh, Ryou, I am so sorry…"

                 "Oh, it's fine," said Ryou. "I bought some cream puffs yesterday."

                "And ate them all, right?"

                "Yes, thank you, Marik."

                "We'll bring you a cake tomorrow," said Yugi.

                Ryou smiled. He wondered how he could ever have thought this apartment cavernous other than cosy, how his life could ever have been so cold when warmth like this existed. "Honestly," he said, "you've done more than enough. Thank you so very much, everyone. Today truly _has_ been wonderful."

                "Next year will be even better," said Yugi.

                "Seriously, next year you're getting a _party_ ," said Jonouchi.

                "With an awful lot of cake," said Anzu.

                "And balloons!" said Marik.

                Ryou smiled and leant his sleepy head on Marik's shoulder. "It is a shame," he said, "that birthdays only last a day." Ryou realised suddenly that he hadn't even noticed that his father had forgotten to phone. It was as if, he thought, he didn't really need to be sad about that any more – he was happy enough with just this.

                "I'm glad," said Yugi. "I couldn't afford to get you a Monster World expansion every day."

                "This isn't just for today, though," said Anzu. "You know that, right?"

                Ryou looked from face to face and in each one saw only earnest, honest compassion. This time no amount of sweet foods could bribe Ryou's lip to stop wobbling.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in an evening for Ryou's birthday. My apologies if that shows - particularly with the awful title, goodness. I couldn't decide whether to make it shippy or friend fluff but in the end went with the latter. Feel free to read whatever ships you want into it, though! I just wanted to write Ryou having a really nice day.
> 
> As the Japanese school year starts in April, and not September, Honda's actually the oldest among them. Jonouchi and Otogi don't turn eighteen until the next calendar year. I think Ryou's joking about the orgies. ~~Next year's birthday fic maybe.~~


End file.
